On the island of Oahu, the homeless situation is absolutely remarkable. Typical scene: A housing development of million dollar homes, where across the street, on the beach, you have a tent development of homeless and all the litter that accompanies it.
Last year, in Seattle, I was shocked to see tents on sidewalks and in the grassy areas near highway onramps.
We have our homeless issues here in Boston, but our problems are nothing compared to the stuff I've seen out west.
There were more than 400 "homeless encampments" as of June 2018, according to city staff. Not more than five are removed per week (city records). The city follows policy in removing encampments, and that policy was revised to the current procedure in March 2017. The initial policy was created in 2008. That 2017 policy revision came from the City Council, former Mayor Ed Murray’s office and the Multi-Department Rules Committee. The removal policy, which can be read here, outlines the removal process. And that removal process can take weeks or months unless there’s a scenario that the city recognizes as a safety hazard.Funny, the Mayor's office didn't mention the right of normal citizens to live in a clean, disease-free, crime-free city and to go about their daily lives without be accosted or assaulted by crazy drug-addled loons.By August 2018, Seattle had removed more homeless encampments than it did in all of 2017: 220 sites have been cleared between Jan 1 and July 31, compared to 191 camps in all of 2017.
The rules that address these encampments “are designed to balance the right of people living unsheltered with the City’s responsibility to maintain public health and safety,” the Mayor's office said.
FOUR HUNDRED "encampments." What's really curious is that the more money the city spends on homeless, the more homeless bums they get. /s